Part 47: Edward's Challenge Dungeon

Edward's Challenge Dungeon



Keep a note of how much gil we start with, as Gil is very important for this dungeon.



So today we're doing Edward's Challenge Dungeon.






It's pretty gimmicky, in that you need to gather a ton of gil so you can buy good items at the end. Naturally, there's a lot of fetch quests involved.

This still manages to be the least annoying challenge dungeon I've done. So much so that I actually bothered to do it twice, though only my first run is shown here.



Part of that is the enemies being hilariously weak. On the first floor, the toughest enemies get is having Bloodbones or Revenants in the group. Edward alone could solo these guys.

I kind of regret not giving the other two guards Iron Swords, as that would've made things go much faster. If I were to do this again, I'd also go with an Attack-boosting moon since Edward + Economical Ring makes healing trivial. Plus I would've stocked up on regular Potions, since they're dirt cheap and Edward gets an easy heal-all for 200HP each that way. (Note: After my second run, I am completely right about all of these things.)

Also, Harley and her whip are actually helpful here, since she can hit back row enemies at full damage and is close in damage output to the Iron Sword guard, plus the chance of paralysis. Her accuracy sucks, though.

At any rate, I don't come close to struggling in any battle in this place.




So there's several floors to this place. Some of them play the town theme, which means there are no random encounters.



Others play the dungeon theme, which do have random encounters. But they're trivial anyway, and they do net you Gil.




The top three doors all have monster-laden hallways leading to people looking for stuff.



The lady on the right will also sell attack items, like we actually need them.



This is one item I never found, though I hear the payoff is crap anyway.



Two of the stairways lead to this room, which has this guy.





Unfortunately, he runs away before I could kill him. I get him in my second run, though. All he gives is cash anyway.




It's always a good idea to lend out your money to complete strangers.



There's also bosses in some of these areas. I'll explain them later, but they're just basic enemies that take forever to kill because the most a character will do is ~250HP damage with a critical hit.



Let's explore the second floor.



Again, always give money to strangers. It can never go wrong.



There's five of these guys, each demanding 500 Gil. I wouldn't advise doing this just yet, as you'll just be wasting money anyway, and they respawn. It may still be necessary, as there can be several things here that will net you gil.



There's an elevator that will take you to the third and fourth floors. You can navigate to the third, but as far as I know you have to take an elevator to go to the fourth.




Not again.



There's a couple of semi-hidden entrances here, though the lack of shadow makes them obvious.




Hey, it's the Gil Bird! His position varies depending on the moon phase.

Bardsong is unreliable, so the best way to handle this guy is just spam attacks. Hell, that's my advice for every single battle.




Not bad.



But this is even better.



If we go north, we find another person looking for something. The other woman offers L2 attack items, which isn't bad, I guess.



Found another useless item! It also changes depending on something. I didn't even find this on my second run.




Sweet, 10k profit.



The Poet's Notebook goes for 2000 Gil. Lame.




I forgot to screencap the boss, which was some type of Golem. It goes to show just how underwhelming he was. Anyway, nice drop.




The Gil Egg nets us major cash, which is awesome.




Another 10k profit. Our money's going through the roof now.

Note that both NPCs can be in various different areas post-loan, so it might take awhile finding them.



There are stronger enemies as you go higher. They still go down easily.




The Hydras are a great source of Bronze Tails. I scored two in a row without trying.

In my second run, I tried grinding for more Bronze Tails from Hydras, but then I end up getting a Silver Tail from a completely different battle. Then I get a Bronze Tail the very next battle. Ha. At any rate, I have my Gold Tail now.




Here's the third floor, and with it more trivial enemies.



And fucking bats. Can't forget the damn bats.





Salve is awesome.




Be careful, as the second run I did had me paying the left guy 10k. Don't know how random it is, though.

Time for our next boss.






I was scared at first, but the idiot didn't use a fire attack once the entire battle. It just kept with its stupid physical attacks. Idiot.



But hey, we got another cash item.



The other side has this room, which includes thieving Chocobos. This guy will steal from you again if you talk to him again, which I learned the hard way. Ugh.



I kind of nullified the loss, though. Don't bother with this room if you've got plenty of money.



Eh. Bard's Lyre was kind of worth it, I guess.



The fourth floor has this lady, looking for an Adamantite Pig.




I went up here earlier, where talking to the guy accomplished nothing. Since the monsters respawn, I have to pay another 2500 Gil just to take this guy, not to mention the 2000 Gil to go up and down the elevator to even reach the fourth floor.

Second run had the pig at the back of the second floor, but both loan NPCs in this area.








You deserve your fate. At least we still made a profit.



Alright, time for the final boss. But first, let's see how much we've made.



After this battle, we'll be sitting at over 70k Gil, meaning we've pretty much made 60k Gil in this place. Not bad.





Belphegor can cast Tornado. That still doesn't make the battle interesting.



The final room is where the dungeon's gimmick pays off, literally I guess. There are five chests, each costing 10k, 20k, 30k, 40k, and 50k. Obviously, the better the item, the more you spend. And there's no point hoarding money since it'll disappear after leaving the dungeon anyway.





Wow, a useful item! It's been awhile since I got one of those.

The fact that the harp's effective against undead made my second run much, much easier.




Since I have some extra cash, I invested in the 20k chest, which was a Dry Ether. Meh.

Second run, I managed to grind up to an impressive 90k, with which I looted the 50k and 40k chests for... a Silver Apple and Soma Drop. Yeah, fuck the people who made this game.

So yeah, other than being somewhat long, it's not nearly as frustrating as the other dungeons. Making money is easy as hell, and as long as you're careful you'll have enough to clean house.

If only the other dungeons were this tolerable.